Fortunately, Unfortunately
by CeCeHigganbotham
Summary: A simple story about a boy and a girl in a tea shop...


**A/N: Hi Everyone! This is my first fanfic everrrrr...I wanted to get myself in a place to jump off the ledge of writing and do something I haven't done before. I adore ATLA and I have read so many amazing fics and with that said, I don't own anything, but when I do, you'll all be the first to know!**

**Disclaimer: This is a fan-based work of fiction. Characters and settings belong to the intellectual property of the works from which they are taken.**

**Fortunately, Unfortunately**

This is a little story about a boy. A boy who had seen too much of life and yet not enough. A lonely and nearly abandoned one who more than anything wanted to find his place in the world and be accepted and loved by someone. A boy who wanted a chance to prove he deserved it. Just this once…

Fortunately, the fates were kind enough to send the perfect someone his way. The girl who looked to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old entered the teahouse with a look of pure relief and abandon. A homecoming of sorts as this, like for many others, is her solace and refuge from the toils and burdens just outside the heavy and ornate wooden doors of the Jasmine Dragon. The Jasmine Dragon was the only place in Ba Sing Se where the only thing that mattered was whether your money was enough to purchase a cup of Jasmine, Ginseng or Green tea. No one ever calculated whether you should have paid for the second cup, or the third or the special blend that the owner just wanted you to try for his sake. The payment was in accepting the warm liquid offerings and being gracious to the giver. It was the one unspoken rule of the house of tea.

The boy's heart ran a marathon as he watched his future stride across the travel-worn carpets of his hideaway, and more recently the place, he began to call home. Her chocolate waist-length waves tossed side to side as she walked through the tea shop like the cadence of the sea and her bespectacled blue eyes sparkled with the warmth of summer skies and a sunbathed ocean. Unfortunately, the fates have a sense of humor and the girl had no clue that the silent and scarred boy with the gentle lisp and raspy voice was even alive and much less that he watched her walk across the room with admiration and curiosity.

Fortunately, it pays to have that one family member who is aware of the spirits happenings, who knows too much and sees everything. Just behind the counter, Iroh's sharp and cunning mind went to work. "Oh Zuko!" he called out innocently with just a hint of mischief. Zuko looked up at his uncle from the booth he had claimed for reading and studying with more than a little surprise and not enough suspicion. He was familiar with that tone of voice. Surely Uncle didn't see him looking at the brown-haired beauty he wondered. Oh, yes. Yes, he did. Unfortunately, there were very few things that missed his uncle's awareness especially when it came to Zuko.

"Oh Zuko," Iroh sighed with more sorrow and lament than the situation warranted. "I know you wanted the day off so that you could study for your exam you have tomorrow, but the tea house has just gotten so busy that I need you to help out for just a moment. Can you serve the last customer that came in?" His hand waved in the obvious direction of the girl of Zuko's dreams and Iroh's contrived doe eyes revealed nothing of the betrayal that Zuko felt just below the surface. The tea house was nearly empty as the usual customers who come during the week are the high school and college students who need a quiet place to read. His eyes narrowed, but Zuko didn't want to lose his cool in front of the beautiful girl who just took a seat in a booth two tables down. Fortunately, Zuko knows a set up when he sees one. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to go along with his uncle's request. "Of course, Uncle," Zuko's voice strained with effort. "I'll help…you." While his eyes cried, "Why are you like this?" Iroh just smiled widely and gave Zuko a few pats on the arm as he walked away and to the kitchen for a very special blend of jasmine berry tea.

Zuko quickly donned an apron and picked up a pad and pen from behind the counter. He walked over as calmly as he could while his heart danced back and forth in his ribcage. _Don't be awkward...Don't be awkward_…Zuko prayed to… himself? Every deity in the known and unknown worlds and half of the spirit world? The God outside of the ATLA universe? It didn't matter: if any of them were listening, he beseeched them all to just help him not to do anything irreversibly and irrevocably stupid.

Fortunately, one of those gracious celestial beings out there saw fit to shield the girl from all of Zuko's inner consternation and turmoil by enrapturing her in one of her favorite novels, _Love Amongst the Dragons._ Zuko smiled to himself as he saw what she was reading and marveled that the girl who captured his attention would be reading one of his mother's favorite stories, Agni rest her soul. Zuko shook of the encroaching sadness and cleared his throat. "Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon, how may I serve you today?" he rasped softly as to prevent startling his customer. Unfortunately, the girl looked up with impossibly large azure eyes over the rim of her glasses and squeaked slightly in surprise. "Oh, um—hi! Uh… I'd like uh, tea… please?" she grimaced in obvious discomfort at her awkward reply and shook her head as if to start over. She sighed in frustration. "Sorry, I was at a really good part of the story I'm reading and I kinda got carried away. Um, what I meant to say is I would like a cup of your jasmine berry blend and a mango tea cake, please." Her cheeks flooded with color as she looked down at her hands quickly. Zuko smiled despite himself at her graceless request and replied. "No problem, I'll bring your order out in just a moment." As he walked away Zuko didn't notice the way the young woman looked up shyly at his retreating figure blushing and worrying her lip.

Fortunately, once again the all-knowing Iroh did notice and sprung to action. He gently pulled Zuko to the kitchen and as he finished preparing the tea order he whispered, "Zuko, while the young lady's tea is brewing, why don't you take her one of our new coupons, eh?" his eyebrows wiggling suggestively. "And Nephew… don't say it's from me!" Zuko who was exulting still on his brief victory over awkwardness was not prepared mentally or emotionally to go back out into the fray. "Uncle, no. Please! I just made it out of there alive. It was pure luck I didn't say anything stupid. I don't know if I can be so lucky twice!"

Unfortunately, Zuko wasn't so lucky. He groaned and tried to roll his eyes in irritation. Unperturbed, his uncle sent him back out rather forcefully with the coupon and an extra sweet treat for the young lady. Zuko caught himself before he bumped into the counter and looked back irritably at the kitchen (and by virtue of previous happenings, his uncle) before fixing his face and walking back to the table of destiny. "U-uh, hi again." Zuko stammered feeling like his life was ending as he reverted to his default setting of awkwardness. "Um, I just wanted to offer you this new coupon we have? Oh, uh and, uh some cake…yeah, this cake. Um, I mean—I wanted you to have-this-extra-piece-of-cake. Because…you know it's close to closing and we have to get rid of it? Uh (sigh)…Whatever. Here!" He unceremoniously pushes the cake onto the table in front of the girl and now it's her turn to smile as his pale face turns a brilliant shade of crimson. As Zuko turns to scamper to the anonymous safety of "the kitchen of ever-burning shame and humiliation," ™ the young lady calls to him softly, "Katara." Zuko turns to the girl slightly confused and she repeats herself, "Katara, that's my name. What's yours?" Zuko breathes a sigh of relief and mentally thanks the many gods and goddesses of the multiple universes and dimensions for showing him the greatest kindness today. He smiles slightly and replies, "Zuko. My name is Zuko."

Fortunately, they both share a genuine smile between them and perhaps the start of a beautiful friendship. Unfortunately, this is where this story ends for now…


End file.
